That's right, I paid real money to see a movie today, only the second time I've done that this year, too!

The Alamo Drafthouse showed TMWWT in tribute to James Gandolfini, with proceeds goin' to the Central Texas American Heard Association. The Ritz manager was surprised when I told him I wanted to pay for my ticket. He already had the employee sign-in sheet in his hand, ready to hand to me...

I did use my discounts on the tab, though, since those aren't part of the proceeds, just the ticket sales.

The preshow was made up of his Inside the Actor's Studio interview, his Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Dramatic Role for The Sopranos, and clips from various movie roles includin' The Last Castle, True Romance and The Mexican.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, too. Billy Bob Thorton's narration was amusin', and the story was interestin' enough. I don't see the point of it bein' done in black & white, though.

So, yeah, out of 220 "new to me" movies this year, I've only paid to see 2 in theaters.

Well, I went out to Lake Creek last Sunday to see a couple of movies, but thanks to a new rule by their general manager, I could only see one. So, I went with MU 2D.

To be honest, I was disappointed. There was stuff from the trailer that I wished had been in the movie, and by the time it was over, I was done with the whole thing. I didn't stay through the credits for the bonus scene, I was so ready to get out of the theater.

I followed that up with a trip to the Village to see WWZ 2D. And that one was so deathly dull, I dozed off a few times. Towards the end, when the flashbacks help Brad Pitt figure everything out, one of 'em was a part of the movie I had dozed through.

I did talk a buddy of mine to see it in 3D yesterday, though. So not worth the upcharge, if ya have to pay to get in. The movie wasn't filmed for the 3D format, and it shows.

My biggest complaint is that they never seem to say what Brad Pitt's character did, or why it was so important to the U.N. to get him involved.

Anyway...

..been watchin' Law & Order: UK on DVD the last few days, and my work schedule for next week sucks in such a way that I may not see anything new all freakin' week, unless I start borrowin' DVDs from my roommates.

Again, watching this trilogy for the first time in almost two decades. I'm honestly not sure I even finished this the first time. At over 4hrs it's long. While re-watching the first much of it came back to me but I was able to appreciate it more. Here, much of it felt new, especially the first few hours. I must've caught it on AMC back in the 90's and missed the beginning, perhaps? A modern classic for a reason.

120. The Host (✩✩✩✩) - Download - I thought this was a great movie. Good story with some interesting and thought-provoking concepts, a fantastic lead actress with Saorise Ronan, another great character played by William Hurt and a visual style that evokes starry nights and warm earth tones. I think a lot of the hate comes from the fact that it's from Stephanie Meyer. The movie itself isn't bad. Sure it's got the young romance angle, but it's not front and center.

121. Pacific Rim (✩✩✩✩½) - Theatre - A successful attempt to do an anime-style live action film. I also think of it as Godzilla done right. My review is here.

The first of two movies watched on my trans-Atlantic flight home a couple of days ago. In this case, a rewatch. The movie holds up fairly well, though it remains a bit bloodless, and the criticisms about how it should have ended shortly before it did are pretty accurate. Day-Lewis' performance remains astonishing.

47. Beautiful Creatures (C-)

I'm not entirely sure why I decided to watch this -- I guess to take a look at the Twilight film knockoffs. I knew of this series from previous discussions with one of my friends who works in a bookstore's YA section. She wasn't a fan, and I can see why. The special effects here didn't look great, though that may have been the screen I was watching it on.

In any event, this is kind of the liberal answer to Twilight in many respects: Stephenie Meyer has gotten flack for covert Mormon propaganda about abstinence, etc.; this film is pretty overt in criticizing small-town rural Southern culture. Despite the fact that I agree with much of the critique in theory, the effect of this is a bit off-putting, because neither the authors, nor the director, nor the main actors are from the South, nor have any experience with it; and while I don't subscribe to the idea that that's a prerequisite to write about something, in this case there's a strong flavour of inauthenticity here, like this is a Southern town imagined by people who clearly haven't any experience with one, and don't accord much dimension to their depictions of it.

It also doesn't help that the movie is rather hypocritical, in that it's very contemptuous of conservative Christianity, but at the same time the central conceit of its mythos is that at age 16 female witches (or 'casters') either turn evil or stay good, based on what feels like completely arbitrary "true nature" -- like the female lead's cousin, whose turning evil immediately leads to acting like a vamp. And we're explicitly told that male casters don't have this, and can choose to be good or evil. There's some halfhearted attempt to get away from this Madonna/Whore stuff at the end, but it's muddled. Not to mention, the film's depiction of the witches' dilemma depicts evil like flipping a switch on or off.

For all that, the movie isn't without its better points. Principally, the leads, who have decent chemistry. Alice Englert (Jane Campion's daughter) is very likeable as the female lead, Lena.

You know the telegraphing of what happens to Mary so early and I feel often takes this down a peg. There is the famous line of course, "Just when I think I'm out they drag me back in". While the setting and tone do a great job of recapturing what was done 16yrs earlier Al Pacino's Michael Corleone seems a bit off, not quite as perfectly recaptured. Still it's better than 90% of what comes out of Hollywood today and this was a '90 film. Glad I've completed this now so far removed from when I've first seen them, or parts of them.

It was good, even on this rewatch several years after seeing it originally. The first twenty minutes still effectively show the chaos of D-Day and I also enjoy that these were a collection of guys, not a stock pick of every stereotype.

23) Air Force One - A-

I caught this one on History Channel last night and ever since it came out, it has been one of my guilty pleasures. I don't think it works as well if you don't have Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman completely buying into the roles and while it does have its plot holes, like why is Xander Berkley's Secret Service agent helping the terrorists? it's still a great popcorn flick.

Found TH in the Wal-Mart bargain bin last week, watched it the other day. It was alright, not great. And its brought down by a WTF?!? endin' that couldn't have even been saved by either of the alternate endings available on DVD.

On the plus side, Eddie Murphy wasn't awful, and Alan Alda is still awesome.

Watched the "Wimpy Kid" sequel because my nephews like 'em. Too bad it doesn't have much of an endin', either...it just kinda stops.

Followed that with a Richard Pryor documentary, which was pretty informative about the late comedian's life & career.

PiB was pretty entertainin', not quite as immersed in fairy tales as the Shrek movies, though Puss, Humpty Dumpty & magic beans are central parts of the movie.

CotO is a film starrin & directed by Tim Allen about an ex con dealin' with life, family and friends after spendin' a few years in prison. Sigourney Weaver, JK Simmons, Kelsey Grammer & Ray Liotta are in it, as well. I thought it was alright.

A friend came out to see PR 2D with me the other night after work. I enjoyed it quite a bit, lookin' forward to goin' to see it in 3D soon. For those who haven't seen it, stick around for a midcredit bonus scene.

Watched GU2 before work yesterday. What an awful movie that was...the openin' joke is all about a wild deer pissin' on Adam Sandler while the closin' joke is a celebration of bein' able to burp, sneeze & fart at the same time. I haven't seen the first GU movie, and this didn't make me want to see it at all.

Beyond Sherwood Forest- At first I thought this was going to be a type of film that "picks up" after the events we know and spin a type of "untold" tale. Instead it just uses the characters, within the setting and throws in dragons and a link to dark realm deep in the forest. A DDVD release in '09 the only name you'd know is Erica Durance, she is Marion. However, while watching I noticed Friar Tuck is played by Bill Dow(Dr.Lee) of Stargate SG-1. It's a passable 1.5hr with choreography that is laughable and some f/x on the dragon that don't aide in the suspension of disbelief.

R.E.D. 2 - attended a free screening last night and the crowd was really into it. Since this isn't a spoiler area I'll generalize and say I thought the first act was a bit choppy. Perhaps necessary to set up all the players, still once that's done I felt it came together from there on out. My other issue would be the Sarah Ross character played by Mary Louise Parker. She got pulled into the first one and was cute and funny in a situation she never expected. Here she tags along and feels out of place + is an operations risk.
Malkovich, Willis, Mirren and Byung Hung-Lee are great along with Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins and Mirren have a number of great moments. Byung Hung-Lee finishes out a three person exchange that got a big laugh around the start of the third act.

Hau’oli LanuiSee where the sky meets the sea, It calls mePremium Member

Sound of my Voice - HBO go on Apple TV - This is the first movie I have watched with HBO go since it being added to the Apple TV. I saw the other movie by the pair who wrote this, Another Earth. I liked that movie, so when I fired up HBO go this evening, I was very excited to see this as one of the moves available. I'm kind of lost where to start with the movie, so I guess I'll start with this, I liked the movie a lot. I compared Another Earth to Primer in feel, and I think that description works equally here. It's a fairly complicated story about a woman possibly from the future and dealing with a cult like following. Excellent performances all around, especially from the lead Christopher Denham who plays Peter. I really like his turn as a skeptical, wanna be investigative film maker/journalist into a quasi, almost believer. It's subtlety at its best and very nuanced.

After watching the movie, I felt I needed to watch it again immediately. I'm sure I missed some stuff, because of multi tasking. (Surfing the Internet while watching) I also read on IMDB that this was supposedly the first in a trilogy of movies. I felt that to be true, I feel like there are more stories to be told here. For most of the movie they keep you guessing about the authenticity of Maggie, the supposed time traveler. There are enough clues along the way to question everything. I do this I need to watch this again, not watch it distracted and to try and pick up on more. Without any forth coming additional movies and supposedly the writers not wanting to explain anything, we're left will trying to decipher this one.